still harping on under-par mono blue tempo that never made it far into any serious tournament in last 4 months? many of the cards i mentioned have already seen more top 8/16 in one tournament than mono blue tempo in last 4 months.

talking about last weekend, cards mentioned in this topic that you guys dismissed were seen in the most recent top 8: depose, warrant, deputy of detention, healing hawk, shalai, angel of grace, lyra dawnbringer, settle the wreckage, unbreakable formation, absorb, thought erasure, discovery, dovin

actually i wanted to bring up dovin earlier after testing him. pretty quickly creates a squadron of 2/2 or 3/3 flyers with some favorable winds out. so i would recommend him maindeck.

Since Bant skies dont play much instants/sorceries, we may consider replacements for Mission Briefing. (Although it gets better value against control decks when you also use it to recast countermagic.)

Incubation / Incongruity: Incubation is cheap 1cc sorcery. Bant version plays enough creatures for this to hit/see a creature at 85-90% chance. Incongruity exiles at instant. Its controller gets a 3/3, but is better than let a 12/12 stay around. also takes care of recurring creatures.

Assure/Assemble: Permanent +1/+1 and saves a creature, but only one creature. Other half costs 6 whopping mana (even this deck can afford it), unfortunately the tokens dont fly.

Hydroid Krasis: With ramp from Dowsing Dagger, this can be really big easily and early. Life gain + card draw are exactly what this deck want. Trample will provide edge in the mirror match. Can replace Mission Briefing + Warden.

The new design philosophy intentionally make commons useless outside of limited. The modern design space for commons are so narrow and anti-consumer. They are forcing players to build with 80% rares and mythics. everything has become premium. including the bedrock of a deck--lands--demand mass amounts of rares. there used to be good removal at common, now players are forced to pay premium for playable removal.

when rarity = power level, there's no reason to play common creatures, when rarer creatures are more powerful, more utility at same or cheaper mana cost.

Sphinx of Foresight will smooth out your opening hand, especially since this deck is low on lands, and great P/T for its cost. Prying Blade, then, creates extra sources of mana, to ramp into the more expensive spells--especially if wanting to flashback spells.

The right halves of Azorius are the finishers. Late game improves your board state substantially.

people are misevaluating. Mission Briefing is better than SCM in many cases. early on it smooths your draws. later on it removes cards you don't want. itself is instant, which fuels cards that combo with instants. including Delver and Pteramander. where Delver wants to see MB to flip itself; and MB reduces Pteramander's costs.

consider a toolbox deck which has a lot of 1-ofs and tutors. you say the chances of drawing a 4-of is only 0.1% less. let's assume that you're right. so the chances of drawing a tutor remains about the same. what if you add an extra 1-of that can be searched by the tutor. that extra can be valuable, while only minimally affecting a bad opening hand. thoughts?